The Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) has recently published the Persian Leopard Infographic Poster with the support of Alborz Department of Environment. This is the second infographic poster ICS is producing with public awareness purposes, after the widely-distributed Asiatic Cheetah Infographic Poster. In order to increase the local knowledge and tolerance of leopards in Alborz Province, ICS has printed 3,000 leopard posters and distributed them in several villages in Taleghan County, where local communities are living in leopard habitats and there are occasional human-leopard conflicts. The Persian Leopard Infographic Poster is now freely available to download in high resolution.
"leopard "
After the successful experience of the cheetah infographic poster, the “Persian Leopard” infographic poster was developed and released in 3000 numbers in collaboration with the Infogram Institute and the Department of Environment of Alborz province,
Persian leopard infographic poster was unveiled through a ceremony in presence of Alborz DoE deputies and authorities of Alborz Province. These posters will be distributed in local villages and rural areas which are located in the leopard habitat, in order to raise awareness about this species.
In collaboration with ICS, the Persian Leopard Project in Northeastern Iran has designed and produced a leopard wall calendar for the coming Persian New Year 1395 (starting on March 10th 2016). Supported by more than 40 private donors and friends of ICS, this calendar is going to be distributed in several villages located with or in periphery of key leopard reserves in northeastern Iran where the project team works, including Tandoureh National Park (Razavi Khorasan Province), Salouk and Sarigol National Parks (both in North Khorasan Province), and Ors & Sistan Protected Area (Razavi Khorasan Province).
This calendar features photo-trapped pictures of Persian leopards from the above reserves, and some basic information about aspects of biology, ecology, and status of leopards in Iran has been provided within. Besides of being a daily reminder of the passion for the leopards and their habitats, the project team hopes that this calendar can act as an environmental education tool for local communities coexisting with leopards on this landscape.
Socio-economic consequences of livestock predation by the Endangered Persian leopard
Wild carnivores have been persecuted as pests by humans throughout history. The underlying factors leading to the persecution of large predators are complex and are also linked to local perceptions and cultural values. In rural communities where livestock has high economic and social importance and is an important source of income, livestock losses affect local attitudes towards, and acceptance of, large carnivores. Understanding the factors that contribute to the complexity of conflict issues is crucial if conservationists are to facilitate the development of appropriate mitigation strategies.
Iran is a stronghold for leopards in southwestern Asia, including the Caucasus Ecoregion. In the Caucasus the Endangered Persian leopard has been persecuted to the verge of extinction, primarily as a result of conflict with people over livestock predation. In 2011, the Iranian Cheetah Society launched a capacity building project for local communities in and around Dorfak No-Hunting Area, a key leopard reserve in Gilan province along the southern Caspian Sea coast. During a two-year intensive investigation of the extent of cattle predation by leopards and how this influences people’s attitudes towards leopards among village residents of eight villages, the ICS team revealed an alarming level of leopard-cattle conflict and very negative local attitudes towards the large predator. This study as the first quantitative analyses of human-leopard interactions in the Caucasus region, has recently published in Oryx as a peer-reviewed article .
The ICS team has presented the results of this study together with recommendations to decision makers and local stakeholders in a detailed report of the project outcomes (for the English version click here). Consequently, our team has focused their attention on addressing the underlying conflict using a human–leopard coexistence framework, considering that only a locally sustainable mitigation scheme in an institutionally and environmentally dynamic context would benefit all parties.
The Persian Leopard Project in Northeastern Iran is running an intensive camera-trapping survey in several key leopard reserves. To date, more than 250 photographs of Persian leopards from 40 camera-trap locations have been obtained from Salouk and Sarigol National Parks. Researchers from the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) have started to analyze the data, and preliminary results suggest viable leopard populations in these two reserves. The team expects to expand this survey to new areas in spring 2016.
Led by Mohammad Farhadinia from ICS and University of Oxford’s WildCRU, and in collaboration with Iran Department of Environment (DoE), North Khorasan Provincial Office of Iran DoE, Panthera, and University of Tehran; this project seeks to answer a variety of conservation-oriented questions about the persistence of the Endangered Persian leopard in fragmented mountainous habitats in northeastern Iran. Gathering reliable information about the population status of leopards are one the key components for effective conservation planning for this endangered leopard subspecies across its range.
First female Persian leopard collared in northeastern Iran
On December 6, 2015, the first female Persian leopard was successfully captured during the Persian Leopard Project in Northeastern Iran. The project team carefully immobilized, examined and measured this 3-year-old female of about 40 kg. The team called her “Iran”, fitted her with a GPS satellite collar, and then released her.
Led by Mohammad Farhadinia from the Iranian Cheetah Society and WildCRU, and in collaboration with Iran Department of Environment, Panthera, and University of Tehran; this project seeks to answer a variety of conservation-oriented questions about the persistence of Endangered Persian leopards in fragmented mountainous habitats in a number of protected areas in northeastern Iran. Another four male Persian leopards have been previously fitted with collars during this study.
Updates for the Persian Leopard Project in Northeastern Iran
Led by Mohammad Farhadinia from the Iranian Cheetah Society and WildCRU, and in collaboration with Iran Department of Environment, Panthera, and University of Tehran; this project seeks to answer a variety of conservation-oriented questions about the persistence of Endangered Persian leopards in fragmented mountainous habitats in a number of protected areas in northeastern Iran.
One key aspect of this project is studying the movement ecology of Persian leopards on this rugged landscape. Five Persian leopards have been so far successfully fitted with cutting-edge GPS satellite collars, which are providing invaluable data about movement patterns, kill rates and social structure of Persian leopards. This information is also very important to increase our current knowledge about human-leopard interactions and leopard-livestock conflict.
Among the four male and one female leopards captured during this study, two of the male leopards have been monitored for one year and their collars have been successfully recovered.
The project team is now busy with an intensive camera-trapping survey and prey assessment in multiple reserves, in order to better understand the population dynamics of the enigmatic Persian leopards and patterns of predator-prey relationships. The project is expected to continue until 2017.
Kave:
Another kill belonging to one the young male leopards fitted with GPS satellite collars during this study. Wild sheep appears as one the Persian leopard’s preferred prey on this landscape.
Map showing movement patterns of one of the male leopards which is monitoring during this project. This old male has trespassed the border between Iran and Turkmenistan for several times during the past two months.
A camera-trap photograph of an unidentified male leopard within the territory of the collared male leopards.
ICS’ Persian Leopard Project aired on Dutch and Belgium TV channels
During the Persian Leopard Project in Northeastern Iran, a new leopard was successfully radio-collared very recently . This young male, the 4th leopard that has been equipped with GPS-satellite collars in this project, was anestethsized by Jacques Kaandorp, a well-known vet from Beekse Bergen Safari Park, the Netherlands. During his 2-week stay in Iran, Jacques was accompanied by a small group of Dutch documentary makers who filmed the project. Two short episodes from this documentary was aired on Dutch and Belgium TV channels recently. You can watch the first episode in Dutch here .
Led by Mohammad Farhadinia, the Persian Leopard Project in Northeastern Iran is a collaborative conservation-based research project between University of Oxford’s WildCRU, ICS, Iran Department of the Environment, and Panthera.
The Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS)’s award-winning documentary “In search of the Persian leopard” won the Best Foreign Feature Film award at Wildlife Conservation Film Festival (WCFF) in New York.
Produced by Fathollah Amiri (Wildlife Pictures Institute) in collaboration with ICS and Iran National TV, this documentary features the story of a team of ICS biologists working in a rugged high-attitude reserve in northern Iran where intensified human-leopard conflict has resulted in heavy persecution of this enigmatic large cat. You can watch the movie online here.
‘In search of the Persian Leopard’ has already several national and international prestigious awards, including the Best Documentary award at Iran’s International Documentary Film Festival (Fajr), making it the most outstanding wildlife film ever in Iran.
Leveraging trans-boundary partnerships for conservation of leopards in the Caucasus
A new study involving the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) researchers shows that conservation of leopard populations in the Caucasus is tied to regional cooperation between range countries.
Published in Biological Conservation , the study reveals that suitable leopard habitats in the Iranian Caucasus are likely to be fragmented into two main patches of collectively over 20,000 km2: (1) the Alborz landscape which hosts the larger leopard nucleus and majority of breeding occurrences, and (2) the boundary landscape along borders with Republic of Azerbaijan and Armenia. Only 30% of these landscapes are officially protected. By modeling the connectivity between these two core patches in north-western Iran, the study show that persistence of the leopard population in the boundary landscape and the broader Lesser Caucasus Mountains is dependent on trans-boundary movements through southern Azerbaijan. Thus, it is a priority that international collaboration secures the leopard’s conservation in the wider landscape spanning the borders of Caucasian countries.
ICS is now launching a large-scale corridor assessment focusing in Gilan and Ardabil provinces to assess the value of protecting the proposed corridors and to delineate priority areas for range-wide leopard conservation. ICS’ findings will also be used to support a proposal that Iran Department of the Environment should grant legal protection to certain areas, and to explore opportunities for a regional cooperation between Iran and the southern Caucasus countries.
The ICS’ Caucasus leopard project in northwestern Iran is supported by Iran Department of the Environment and World Land Trust.